Toyo (Japan)

Iyo (壹與), also known as Toyo (臺與), (235-?) was a queen regnant of Yamatai-koku in Japan. She was, according to the "Records of Wei" and other traditional sources, the successor of Queen Himiko.^[1]

Reign[]

Iyo is not cited in many historical records, and her origin is unknown. The only recorded reliable claims are that Iyo was a close relative of Himiko, and that she acquired great political power at a very young age. Information obtained from Chinese sources and from archeological and ethnological discoveries has led Japanese scholars to conclude that Iyo was Himiko's niece. Himiko and Iyo were female shamans and that sovereignty had both a political and a religious character.

After Himiko's death, a man took power in Yamatai as regent. However, warfare soon engulfed the polity. The ruling council met and decided to put another woman on the throne. The one chosen was Iyo, a girl of only 13 years old, who succeeded in reinstating peace in her government following the same political line adopted by Queen Himiko.

The Records of Wei describes Himiko's death and Iyo's rise in the following terms:

When Himiko passed away, a great mound was raised, more than a hundred paces in diameter. Over a hundred male and female attendants followed her to the grave. Then a king was placed on the throne, but the people would not obey him. Assassination and murder followed; more than one thousand were thus slain. A relative of Himiko named Iyo [壹與], a girl of thirteen, was [then] made queen and order was restored. Chêng issued a proclamation to the effect that Iyo was the ruler. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:16)

Iyo continued, or restored, tributary relations between Wa and Wei; Wei officials were included among her advisors, and she sent an embassy of twenty individuals, led by her grand steward Isako, to accompany some of these Chinese officials back to China.

References[]

• Aston, William G, tr. 1924. Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to CE 697. 2 vols. Charles E Tuttle reprint 1972.
• Chamberlain, Basil Hall, tr. 1919. The Kojiki, Records of Ancient Matters. Charles E Tuttle reprint 2005.
• Edwards, Walter (1998), "Mirrors to Japanese History", Archeology, 51 (3).
• ——— (1999), "Mirrors on Ancient Yamato: The Kurozuka Kofun Discovery and the Question of Yamatai", Monumenta Nipponica, 54 (1): 75–110, doi:10.2307/2668274, JSTOR 2668274.
• Ellwood, Robert S (1990), "The Sujin Religious Revolution" (PDF), Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Nanzan U, 17 (3): 199–217, doi:10.18874/jjrs.17.2-3.1990.199-217^{[permanent dead link]}.
• Farris, William Wayne (1998), "Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures: Issues in the Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan", Monumenta Nipponica, 54 (1), pp. 123–26.
• Hideyuki, Shindoa.「卑弥呼の殺人」角川春樹事務所, 2005.
• Hori, Ichiro. 1968. Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change. University of Chicago Press.
• Imamura. Keiji. 1996. Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia. University of Hawai’i Press.
• Kidder, Jonathan Edward. 2007. Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai. University of Hawai’i Press.
• Matsumoto, Seichō (1983), "Japan in the Third Century", Japan Quarterly, 30 (4), pp. 377–82.
• Mori, Kōichi (1979), "The Emperor of Japan: A Historical Study in Religious Symbolism" (PDF), Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Nanzan U, 6 (4), pp. 522–65.
• Saeki, Arikiyo (1988). Sangokushiki Wajinden, Chōsen Seishi Nihonden 1 (in Japanese). Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-334471-5.
• Tsunoda, Ryusaku, tr (1951), Goodrich, Carrington C (ed.), Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories: Later Han Through Ming Dynasties, South Pasadena: PD and Ione Perkins.

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